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Hear the Devotional Narrated here: http://bit.ly/2nnDZRj
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15-25a NRSV)
Happy Tuesday to you and yours, dear Friend! I praise God for good prayer updates that I have received! The baby who was to have corrective ear surgery, underwent the first one successfully and will be in recovery and a special time of rehabilitation, after which he will be tested to see if the surgery has allowed him to hear. Please pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the first part being completed, and pray that the surgery is a success and that he can hear his loved ones after his rehab time! God continues to move among us, through us, and sometimes, even in spite of us! Pray for one another. Pray for yourselves. May we be open to God's leading among us in all things.
As I finished the recording of my podcast, Pimples and Wrinkles, it was on the last chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. In it, Paul said his goodbyes to his dear friends and coworkers in the special ministry he had of preaching in Asia and in Europe. I was moved at remembering my goodbyes to my grandmother, mother, and father; as well as goodbyes to dear churches throughout the years. I in no way can compare my accomplishments to Paul, for I hold him to be a giant of faith; even inspired to read of his struggles within himself to be the person Jesus called him to be. Paul struggled, just as you and I struggle. This passage is an open confession of a deeply spiritual man, whose amazing works touched many and saved a multitude of people from their sins and were ushered into the Kingdom of God by his sermons, letters, visits, works, etc. And yet, in the hours of his writing, he ponders within himself, as some of us do; what difference have I truly made in my own life? Paul admits, "I do not understand my own actions." I've been there. I have said, done, and thought things that I should not have said, thought, or done. There are words that escaped my mouth before I could haul them back in, and only to see the harm I did not intend to cause to someone close, someone I loved. Paul knew that feeling. Paul even admits, "I do the very thing I hate." Some of us swore growing up that we never wanted to sound like our parents especially when it came to important matters in a youth's life, like music. The one phrase I disliked hearing from my father was, "That's not music! That's noise!" I swore, I will never say that to my children. And what happened? Well, someone invented some new music and what was the first thing I said to my girls as they were jumping around to that noise?? "That's not music! That's noise!" But, of course, I was right. Not! Paul knew, as I know, and as many of us know, that sin living within us; that sin not surrendered to Jesus, will continue to bother and torment, and if we are not careful, even begin to guide our decisions and our words; and we find ourselves realizing that we have become the very thing we hated. It is a war, Paul says; a war that we cannot win on our own. And even though he had surrendered his life to Jesus so long ago, he still fought within himself that desire to do evil, when he knew he should be doing good.
We sing the hymn that speaks of this very thing. It is a hymn of power and honesty; a loud song of praise from a man who realized that the wretched man he had become of making money capturing, transporting, and selling human beings was evil; and he heard a man named John Wesley preach against his life's choice and he repented and renounced the slave trade; returning home and setting his own slaves free and employing them as workers, free to leave if they wanted. And it was when he felt that peace in his heart that he set pen to paper and wrote, "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see!" Indeed, that saving grace of Jesus is what we read in verse 25 above. It is only Jesus, my dear friend, who can lift us up out of the muck and mire of our sin and onto the solid foundation of love and life; if we but confess and turn over to Him that which bothers and troubles us.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, let Heaven rejoice in the hearts who today can say, I no longer want to be at war with myself. I renounce the evil in me and accept the freedom Jesus gives me to lead a better, more wonderful life. I surrender to You, loving God, through Jesus, accepting You to guide me onto a richer life. And this I pray, not by my merits, but by those of He who died for me, Jesus my Lord, amen!
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Set someone free by praying for those you know who are still in bondage to sin!
Receive the good news of your new life in Jesus!
Pastor Eradio Valverde
